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I don't think google muscling out intermediaries like Expedia is a good thing. Just for example, Expedia is probably 5% of Google's total revenue and Google d

I don't think google muscling out intermediaries like Expedia is a good thing. Just for example, Expedia is probably 5% of Google's total revenue and Google doesn't like slim margin services by and large that can't be automated. Travel is fairly high-touch - people centric. It doesn't fit Google's "MO". But... its shitty that google can play all sides of the markets while holding people ransom to mass sums of money to pay to play on PPC where google doesn't... i think that's where the problem shines. In essence, you're advocating that eBay goes away because google could do it... they could.. and eBay is technically just an intermediary, but do we want everything to be googlefied? Google bought up/destroyed other aggregators - remember the days of fatwallet, priceline, pricewatch, shopzilla and such when they used to focus on discounts/coupons/deals and now they're moving more towards rewards/shopping/experience - it used to be i could do PPC on pricewatch and reach millions of shoppers are a reasonable rate, but now that google destroyed them all, the PPC rate on "goods" is absurdly high and not having an affordable market means only the amazons and walmarts can really afford to play... it used to be you could niche out, but even then, that's getting harder

treis 6y ago
>In essence, you're advocating that eBay goes away because google could do it... they could.. and eBay is technically just an intermediary, but do we want everything to be googlefied? I don't think I'm really advocating for it as much as I see as a more or less neutral change. That said, I'm pretty ambivalent about Google. Their size is a concern, but they also tend to be pretty low on the dark pattern nonsense. eBay, to use an example you gave, screwed me out of some buyer protection because of poor UX and/or bug (I never saw the option to claim my money after the seller didn't respond). In this specific instance Google ends the process by sending you to the airline to complete the booking. That, imho, is likely better than dealing with Expedia.
- supernovae 6y ago
  Companies opt in to sites like Expedia and list their properties/flights/vacations on their marketplace and they pay a commission for those being booked. Expedia doesn't just crawl them and demand a royalty for sending them traffic... Google has a huge pay 2 play problem with PPC... i've worked for Expedia so that's the only reason i know this :) It's the reason companies work with Expedia many times because they don't have the leverage expedia group does... i see it as unnatural change btw... "borg" if you will.

treis 6y ago

>In essence, you're advocating that eBay goes away because google could do it... they could.. and eBay is technically just an intermediary, but do we want everything to be googlefied? I don't think I'm really advocating for it as much as I see as a more or less neutral change. That said, I'm pretty ambivalent about Google. Their size is a concern, but they also tend to be pretty low on the dark pattern nonsense. eBay, to use an example you gave, screwed me out of some buyer protection because of poor UX and/or bug (I never saw the option to claim my money after the seller didn't respond). In this specific instance Google ends the process by sending you to the airline to complete the booking. That, imho, is likely better than dealing with Expedia.

supernovae 6y ago
Companies opt in to sites like Expedia and list their properties/flights/vacations on their marketplace and they pay a commission for those being booked. Expedia doesn't just crawl them and demand a royalty for sending them traffic... Google has a huge pay 2 play problem with PPC... i've worked for Expedia so that's the only reason i know this :) It's the reason companies work with Expedia many times because they don't have the leverage expedia group does... i see it as unnatural change btw... "borg" if you will.